Likelihood of Rejection of Iran's Request to Discuss U.S. Sanctions at Upcoming OPEC Meeting

While Iran has proposed including discussions on U.S. sanctions against itself in the agenda for the upcoming OPEC meeting, Reuters reported, citing a source, that this request is likely to be rejected. On Friday night, June 8, it was reported that the text of a letter from Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran's representative to OPEC, to the board of the organization dated June 2, a week ago, was seen, in which he requested the inclusion of sanctions discussions in the meeting agenda. The upcoming OPEC meeting is scheduled to take place on June 22 in Vienna, Austria, the headquarters of OPEC. According to Reuters, in Mr. Kazempour's letter, the board of OPEC was asked to add a section to the agenda titled 'Support of the OPEC Ministers' Conference for Member Countries Under Illegal, Unilateral, and Extraterritorial Sanctions.' However, in the Reuters report, citing an unnamed 'informed source,' it was mentioned that Ahmed Al-Kaabi, the rotating president of OPEC from the UAE, after reviewing Mr. Kazempour's letter, discussed the matter with the organization's legal advisor, who did not have a positive view on the subject, 'because the list of topics to be discussed at the upcoming meeting has been finalized and cannot be changed.' Last month, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, the oil minister in Hassan Rouhani's government, also requested support from OPEC members for Iran against U.S. sanctions in a letter to Suhail Al-Mazrouei, his Emirati counterpart who holds the rotating presidency of OPEC. He also expressed his opposition to Saudi Arabia's view on increasing global oil production. In his official letter, Mr. Zangeneh called for OPEC's support according to Article 2 of the organization's charter, which emphasizes the preservation of member countries' interests individually and collectively. Last month, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, and reinstated sanctions against the Islamic Republic, including in the area of Iranian oil exports. According to these sanctions, Iran's customers will only be exempt from U.S. sanctions if they significantly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil every six months. During the previous peak of sanctions against Tehran (2012 to 2015), Iran's oil exports decreased by one million barrels per day due to these sanctions and were halved. OPEC, along with non-member countries led by Russia, has reduced its daily production by 1.8 million barrels since the beginning of last year to support oil prices. Reports from international organizations, including OPEC itself, indicate that global strategic oil reserves have significantly decreased during this period, reaching levels seen five years ago when oil prices were above $100. After the announcement of the return of U.S. sanctions against Iran, two OPEC member countries, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, clearly supported increasing OPEC production, and the Russian energy minister also announced last month after meeting with his Saudi counterpart that 'Russia and Saudi Arabia have a unified position on the oil market.' Previously, Mr. Kazempour described the U.S. request to Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to compensate for Iran's production decline and prevent a spike in oil prices as 'insane and astonishing' and called for OPEC to reject this request. This Iranian oil official told Reuters that consumers (the U.S.) are now using oil as a political weapon and still accuse us (producers) of determining oil prices in global markets. Recently, Donald Trump criticized the 'artificial control of oil prices' in global oil markets by OPEC and its allies.